A MAN who took a baseball bat to a pre-arranged fight has been spared jail.

Joe Cook used the weapon to chase a rival he had agreed to meet outside the Willowpond in Sunderland, but caused no injury.

The 20-year-old was one of four men who had turned up for the daylight brawl in April, which shocked passers-by and was captured on CCTV. Prosecutor Michael Bunch told Newcastle Crown Court: “There was one-on-one fights between the various participants.

“This defendant then pulls a baseball bat from his jacket and chases one of the other group across the road.”

The court heard police found a knife at the fight-scene but it could not be proved who had carried it.

Cook, of Fordfield Road, Pennywell, Sunderland, was sentenced to four months in a young offenders’ institute, suspended for 12 months, with supervision and a three month night time curfew.

Judge James Goss QC told him: “Fortunately for you and the people involved you did not use it to hit anyone, otherwise you would be going straight into detention now.”

Jamie Adams, defending, said Cook appreciates his behaviour was wrong and wants to look to the future with trouble behind him. The three other men involved are in the process of being dealt with by the courts.